Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy

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Overview

A landmark work in the understanding of capitalism, bourgeois society and the economics of class conflict, Karl Marx’s Capital is translated by Ben Fowkes with an introduction by Ernest Mandel in Penguin Classics. One of the most notorious works of modern times, as well as one of the most influential, Capital is an incisive critique of private property and the social relations it generates. Living in exile in England, where this work was largely written, Marx drew on a wide-ranging knowledge of its society to support his analysis and generate fresh insights. Arguing that capitalism would create an ever-increasing division in wealth and welfare, he predicted its abolition and replacement by a system with common ownership of the means of production. Capital rapidly acquired readership among the leaders of social democratic parties, particularly in Russia and Germany, and ultimately throughout the world, to become a work described by Marx’s friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels as ‘the Bible of the Working Class’ In his introduction, Ernest Mandel illuminates a revolutionary theory whose impact on the turbulent events of the twentieth century has become ever more apparent. Karl Marx (1818-1883) was born in Trier, Germany and studied law at Bonn and Berlin. In 1848, with Freidrich Engels, he finalized the Communist Manifesto. He settled in London, where he studied economics and wrote the first volume of his major work, Das Kapital (1867, with two further volumes in 1884 and 1894). He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London. If you enjoyed Capital, you might like Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto, also available in Penguin Classics.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Ernest MandelPreface (Frederick Engels)BOOK III: THE PROCESS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION AS A WHOLE

PART ONE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO PROFIT, AND OF THE RATE OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO THE RATE OF PROFIT

Chapter 1: Cost Price and Profit

Chapter 2: The Rate of Profit

Chapter 3: The Relationship between Rate of Profit and Rate of Surplus-Value

Chapter 4: The Effect of the Turnover on the Rate of Profit

Chapter 5: Economy in the Use of Constant Capital1. General Considerations2. Saving on the Conditions of Work at the Workers’ Expense3. Economy in the Generation and Transmission of Power, and on Buildings4. Utilization of the Refuse of Production5. Economy through Inventions

Chapter 6: The Effect of Changes in Price 1. Fluctuations in the Price of Raw Material; Their Direct Effects on the Rate of Profit2. Revaluation and Devaluation of Capital; Release and Tying-Up of Capital3. General Illustration: The Cotton Crisis 1861-5

Chapter 7: Supplementary Remarks

PART TWO: THE TRANSFORMATION OF PROFIT INTO AVERAGE PROFIT

Chapter 8: Different Compositions of Capital in Different Branches of Production, and the Resulting Variation in Rates of Profit

Chapter 9: Formation of a General Rate of Profit (Average Rate of Profit), and Transformation of Commodity Values into Prices of Production

Chapter 10: The Equalization of the General Rate of Profit through Competition. Market Prices and Market Values. Surplus Profit

Chapter 11: The Effects of General Fluctuations in Wages on the Prices of Production

Chapter 12: Supplementary Remarks1. The Causes of a Change in the Price of Production2. The Production Price of Commodities of Average Composition3. The Capitalist’s Grounds for Compensation

PART THREE: THE LAW OF THE TENDENTIAL FALL IN THE RATE OF PROFIT

Chapter 13: The Law Itself

Chapter 14: Counteracting Factors1. More Intense Exploitation of Labour2. Reduction of Wages below their Value3. Cheapening of the Elements of Constant Capital4. The Relative Surplus Population5. Foreign Trade6. The Increase in Share Capital

Chapter 15: Development of the Law’s Internal Contradictions 1. General Considerations2. The Conflict between the Extension of Production and Valorization3. Surplus Capital alongside Surplus Population4. Supplementary Remarks

PART FOUR: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COMMODITY CAPITAL AND MONEY CAPITAL INTO COMMERCIAL CAPITAL AND MONEY-DEALING CAPITAL (MERCHANT’S CAPITAL)

Chapter 16: Commercial Capital

Chapter 17: Commercial Profit

Chapter 18: The Turnover of Commercial Capital. Prices

Chapter 19. Money-Dealing Capital

Chapter 20: Historical Material on Merchant’s Capital

PART FIVE: THE DIVISION OF PROFIT INTO INTEREST AND PROFIT OF ENTERPRISE

Chapter 42: Differential Rent II – Second Case: Price of Production Falling1. With the Productivity of the Extra Capital Investment Remaining Constant2. A Falling Rate of Productivity for the Extra Capital3. A Rising Rate of Productivity for the Extra Capital